UAE operator Etisalat has called on vendor Alcatel-Lucent to extend its LTE coverage in the nation.

The deal will see Alcatel-Lucent support Etisalat’s plan to cover 99 per cent of populated areas in the UAE with LTE services by 2015, including indoor coverage in buildings, shopping malls, stadiums, airports and other densely populated areas. The vendor will also upgrade Etisalat’s 2G and 3G network.

The contract extends upon an agreement signed between the two in October 2011, in which they pledged to jointly develop a means to deliver mobile broadband to customers built around the Alcatel-Lucent lightRadio product family.

This week, the Etisalat Group also announced a series of agreements with Chinese vendor Huawei that will see the two firms deepen their cooperation in developing 5G telecom broadband services over the next five years. A joint team will be set up to conduct the trial of 5G services, which are anticipated to be the first ever trials of their kind across the MENA region, the companies said.

LTE World Summit 2014 will take place on the 23rd-25th June at the Amserdam RAI, Netherlands